


D is for Dark and Dreams

by Rinkafic



Series: Lorne Parrish Alphabet Soup [5]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-06
Updated: 2012-07-06
Packaged: 2017-11-09 07:52:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/453092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinkafic/pseuds/Rinkafic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary: Sometimes you have to do a little more for a teammate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	D is for Dark and Dreams

Because she was watching for it, Cadman noticed when David yawned and began to rub at his eyes sleepily as he stared into the fire. The three Gate Teams and support security that had come for the trade conference were split between the two fire pits, David had ended up sitting between Stackhouse and Lieutenant Daniels, the new leader of AG-8. The other marines around their fire were all relative strangers to her, Lorne had been dragged over to the other group to talk with Sheppard and Teyla.

Every once in awhile, she saw Evan glance over to check on David. He happened to look just as their scientist’s eyes drifted closed and he started to sway in place, fighting sleep but clearly exhausted from the hike and plant sample collecting he had done that day. Catching Laura’s eye, Lorne tossed his head at David, a silent order to see to him. 

She got up silently, trying not to draw too much attention as Sergeant Plimpton regaled the others with a story from a mission he had been on where they had been attacked by flying bat-like creatures the size of ostriches that spat acid at them. She crept around, outside the fire light's glow until she came up behind David. She leaned in close to his ear and whispered, “Time for bed, Dave.”

“Not sleepy,” he protested automatically, jolting awake just as Plimpton started mimicking the noise the creatures had made. 

“I am,” she whispered back, even though she really wasn’t. Their botanist took some handling on away missions, to make sure he got through the night without embarrassment. After dozens of missions, Evan and Laura almost had it perfected, knowing which buttons to press to get him to go along with them. If left to his own devices, David would sit up by the fire all night, just to avoid going to the tent. 

He looked over his shoulder at her and she yawned dramatically. “Please. Let’s turn in,” she coaxed.

Very reluctantly, he stood up. “Good night, everybody,” he said. A chorus of replies came back, including a few from the other firepit. 

When they were away from the others, Laura said quietly, “I need to use the latrine.”

“It’s dark over there.” 

“I know. We have flashlights. Come with me and stand guard?” She took his elbow and gently led him in the direction of the pit that had been dug that afternoon. He balked when there was a sound from the woods. she knew it was just an insect whistling, but he froze and wouldn’t move. “David, please? I have to go!” She did a brief but energetic pee-pee dance from foot to foot for his benefit. She shined her flashlight in the direction of the latrine.

He finally started walking as she dragged him along, jumping at every sound. His flashlight was clipped to his belt, a precaution after he had dropped it far too many times on previous missions. When they got to the latrine, he went right up to it with her, not giving her any privacy. He held her flashlight for her as she dealt with her clothing. He was too freaked out about the darkness around them to even tease her for the awkwardness or the situation, or make any lewd comments or suggestions. 

Parrish nervously shone the flashlight around at every sound. “Hey!” Watch that, you’ll blind me!” Evan barked as David jumped and spun around at the sound of his approach, catching him in the flashlight beam. 

David lowered the light and then ran over and threw his arms around Evan’s neck, clinging to him, the flashlight beam shining off into the woods behind them as he hugged Evan. Laura shook her head as she finished what she was doing and went to retrieve the light from him before he dropped it in the pit. It had been known to happen, they lost three in one night, one mission. “You got this?” she asked Evan. She wasn’t slighted by Dave’s clinging to Evan, his apparent preference for Lorne’s company. He was caught up in his fear of the dark, it was a legitimate phobia with him, he naturally gravitated towards Evan when he was insecure because Evan had been there first and longest, helping him with it.

“Yeah. Go ahead, we’ll be along,” Evan replied.

Their tent was set apart enough from the others to give them privacy, but not enough to draw attention or be away from the security of the camp. Sheppard’s standing rule was no hanky panky offworld unless you could set a guard for every person in your tent. With three teams on the mission, and extra eyes standing watch, there might be a little frolicing going on around the camp. Though not for them. AG-2 had learned on their first away mission with Parrish that overnights were not conducive to romantic trysts or lustful romps. 

She opened the tent and crawled in, removing her boots and setting them near the door. She took advantage of the space without her tent mates present to wriggle around and strip down to shorts and a tank top. It was far too hot to sleep inside their sleeping bags, so the three of them were unzipped and stacked to make a padded bed. Their packs were off to one side.

By the time she had folded and stowed her clothing and gear, Evan and David were there. She unzipped the door and waited as Evan patiently talked David into removing his boots, belt and jacket. He handed them in to Laura as he stripped their botanist. This was all part of the routine, David would fight them each step of the way, unconsciously trying to avoid the tent and bed. When his issues had first come to light, Evan had spoken to Heightmeyer about it. David had been much more reasonable about his phobia in the daylight, on Atlantis, in the counselor’s office and had agreed to let Evan help him when they were offworld. Since they were romantically involved, Laura had naturally started doing whatever she could to help. So long as they didn’t baby him or belittle him, or draw attention to what they were doing, David could be prodded along and they could avoid a scene or freak out. 

“Good night guys!” Sheppard called from the darkness as he walked past their tent. 

“Night, Colonel,” Lorne called back as he reached around David and undid his pants. 

David protested, pushing his hands away. “No, that’s okay, no. I’ll keep them on.” He was sleepy and scared and could be unreasonable.

“It’s hot tonight, Dave. It will be too hot for clothes in here with all three of us,” Laura said. She already had his boots, so he wasn’t likely to run off on them. They had figured THAT out during the third mission, chasing a screaming scientist through the woods at night was an experience none of them had wanted to repeat. 

“But...” 

“We’re here, Dave, it’ll be safe. We’re both armed and one of us will be awake to watch over the others, I promise,” Evan pulled his face down and kissed him. 

“Okay, okay. There’s guards out here too?”

“Yup. Three. Stackhouse has first watch tonight.” Evan had arranged the schedule so that there would always be two of them with David, the fourth regular member of their Gate Team, Stackhouse also knew about the sleeping issues and was trusted to stay with him. Stackhouse could even get David to calm down after a nightmare. They had enough extra marines along that the rotation worked this time. 

He crawled into the tent and Laura breathed a sigh of relief. The first battle was done, they’d gotten him into the tent. He kicked off his pants and Laura folded them and set them aside. David threw himself down in the middle of the sleeping bags with a huff of irritation. As Evan crawled in and tossed his gear over, Laura wondered if it was going to be a good night or a bad night.

~*~

There were faces coming out of the darkness. Gaunt, pale, leering, with fangs as long as a man’s hand. Eyes that glowed with an evil ight stared straight at him, they saw him, they knew where he was. He was marked and a target and there was no way to escape now.

They lurched out of the woods, ragged clothing dragging and catching on trees as they shambled by. He was surrounded. They were everywhere and they were hungry,

David knew there was no point to screaming, it would bring more of them and hurry his death. Perhaps that was better. Overcome by fear, he screamed. 

From above came a sound that was almost like a cat being strangled mid-meow. He looked up and saw the shadowy outline of dark upon dark, large winged creatures descending through the trees. Their eyes glowed. He knew their talons were outstretched, ready to rend and tear and shred him to pieces. 

He ran. He needed to get away from the bat things, he knew they would be worse than the zombie-like creatures, they were hunters, they lived to chase prey, and he was the only prey in the woods. Alone, a feast for the things that walked in the night.

Tripping over a root, he fell. The screaming was all around him. They were coming.

He scrambled up and ran again, towards a light he saw in the distance. If he could get to the light, he would be safe. But as he got closer, with the things right on his heels and flying behind him, he realized the light was not safety. 

He was splashing through the swamp, green gas rising around him, glowing and illuminating more creatures in the mist. The light that had drawn him was an eye. A giant eye that blinked once, twice, three times. 

David fell face first into the murky water. The zombie things swarmed over and around him, going towards the giant eye, a new, larger, more delicious target. There was a roar as the creature rose from the shallow swamp, a giant head on a long neck. The giant mouth held row upon row of razor sharp teeth that he could see in the green glow of the swamp gas. Screeching, it swung the great head around and began to snap up the creatures attacking it, swallowing them down. David could see the long gullet working as it ate the things that had been chasing him one by one. The bat-like creatures flew at it, scratching at its eyes. It snapped them from the air and he heard the bones crunch as it chewed.

Soon, it was growing quiet, the only sound in the darkness was the splashing of the creature, it was the lord of the swamp as it moved around searching for any more prey to feast upon. The great eyes focused on David and it began to dive towards him, the maw open and gaping, ready to swallow him whole. 

He screamed. 

Hands grabbed his arms and he felt himself being shaken, something had come up behind him, more of them had found him! He screamed and writhed, trying to get away, to run. BUt he was held fast, he couldn’t get away.

~*~

“David, shh, it’s okay. I’ve got you, it’s me, it’s Evan, stop. Just a dream, buddy. Wake up.” Evan held David and tried to sooth him.

He had been thrashing and kicking in his sleep before he started screaming. It was one of the bad nights, David wasn’t waking up as Evan spoke quietly to him, trying to wake him from whatever nightmare he was having. Doctor Heightmeyer had said to ease him awake if possible, to let him come out of it on his own. 

But he was hollering and screeching as if he was being murdered. He would certainly wake the rest of the camp soon, and there were twenty armed marines out there that would come charging in with weapons at the ready. He clamped a hand over David’s mouth and rocked him, speaking in a steady stream into his ear. 

Laura woke of course and was rubbing David’s back and arm, also making soothing noises. “Bad one,” she whispered, clucking her tongue sympathetically. 

“Everything okay?” Stackhouse asked from outside the tent. 

“Yeah, I think so,” Evan replied as David stopped struggling and sagged limply in his arms.  
“Okay, I’ll be close by if you need anything, Major.”

“Thanks, Stacks.”

Laura was trying to straighten out the bedding that had gotten tangled with David’s thrashing about. “You got him?” she whispered sleepily. 

“Yeah, go back to sleep, he’s calming down, I think he’s done.” Evan stroked a hand over David’s hair as his partner slumped against him, his breathing evening out. When he was sure he was asleep again, Evan laid back, dragging Dave down beside him. It was really too hot for this kind of cuddling, but it might keep Dave from having another nightmare, sometimes it did. 

He stroked a hand over the back of his sweat soaked t-shirt and listened to him breathe and knew when he started to wake. He wasn’t surprised when Dave sighed heavily and spoke. “I woke you guys up again.”

“Yeah, it’s okay,” Evan replied.

“I’m sorry.”

Leaning over, Evan found his lips and kissed him and broke off telling him, “No worries.” 

“I suck at this. I hate the dark. I hate camping.”

“I know. We appreciate that you force yourself out for the team. Least we can do is watch your back. Go back to sleep, I’ve got this watch.” 

 

The End


End file.
